Hey all -- <br><br>Presentations for semi-finals are due Tuesday at noon.<br>I should already have your final logo design and 144-character exec summary.<br><br>These are the judges for the business competition semi-finals. <br>
<div class="gmail_quote"><br><b>Ray Robidoux</b>, Co-Chair of the Deal Management and Screening Process for Sand Hill Angels<br><b>Fred Schwedner</b>, VP C3E Corp., VP Engineering/General Manager, Adobe Systems<br>
<b>Ron Rasmussen</b>, UCSC Alum, 1983, CS & Economics, VP Engineering of 4 VC funded starts ups<br><b><span><span></span>Kai Pommerenke</span></b>: Professor of Economics, UCSC<br><br>
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<p><font face="Calibri" size="3"><b>Guidelines for Semi-Final Judges:<font size="2"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"></font></b></font></p></div></div><div style="margin: 1ex;"><div>
<p style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;"><font size="2">The goal of the Business Design Competition is to help students learn and adopt research methodologies that support the premise for a new business idea.</font></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;" size="2"><b>Teams should be judged on whether their proposed ideas are substantiated by research, not conjecture, hype, simplistic assumptions or over-confidence.</b> Presentations are not supposed to be "marketing pitches" to investors. Do not judge presentations </font><font style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;" size="2">on
whether the idea is good, but whether teams have clearly and articulately identified potential opportunities and
obstacles.</font><font size="2"><br></font></p><font style="font-family: garamond,serif;" face="Calibri" size="2"><font style="font-family: verdana,sans-serif;" size="2">Financial projections have been strongly discouraged, since any such data would be arbitrary, with on no viable basis using the research methods discussed here.</font><b><br>
<br></b></font><font face="Calibri" size="3"><b>Please evaluate presentations on the following criteria:<br></b></font>
<ol type="1"><li><font face="Calibri" size="3">Did teams define their objectives clearly? Do they understand their challenges? Are they too confident? Are they trying to "sell you on their idea?"<br></font></li>
<li><font face="Calibri" size="3">Do they make claims that cannot be substantiated by credible research? </font><font face="Calibri" size="3">Have they oversimplified
anything? </font><font face="Calibri" size="3">Are they employing proper methodologies
in their self-assessment?<br>
</font></li><li><font face="Calibri" size="3">Are they well acquainted with the
industry and market in which they plan to operate? Are they clear about
what they know and don’t know as well as how they intend to answer
remaining questions?</font></li><li><font face="Calibri" size="3">Do they understand barriers to
entry? Have they given proper weighting in their priorities in what
problems to solve first?</font></li><li><font face="Calibri" size="3">Does it appear that they've thought
thoroughly about the problem from all sides? <br></font></li></ol></div></div><br>
<font face="Calibri" size="3"><b>Presentation and Judging Format<br>
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<ul><li><font face="Calibri" size="3">Teams will have 5 minutes to present.</font></li><li><font face="Calibri" size="3">After presentations, Judges will <i>not ask questions</i>. Rather, they will provide feedback only. Example:</font></li>
<ul><li><font face="Calibri" size="3">Do not ask: "How do you intend to achieve your stated goal of .... ?"</font></li><li><font face="Calibri" size="3">State: "You failed to justify your claims that you could achieve the goal of..."</font></li>
</ul><li><font face="Calibri" size="3">After presentations, judges will go to a private room to compile scores for all the teams based on:</font></li><ul><li><font face="Calibri" size="3">Verbal Presentation Style/Format/Impact</font></li>
<li><font face="Calibri" size="3">Written (computer presentation) quality<br></font></li><li><font face="Calibri" size="3">Viability of Business Idea</font></li><li><font face="Calibri" size="3">Claims substantiated by research</font></li>
<li><font face="Calibri" size="3">Quality and credibility of assumptions, assessments and projections</font></li></ul><li><font face="Calibri" size="3">Judges will score each team, followed up with recommendations for each team for how to prepare for the Finals. No team will be "eliminated" from the competition.<br>
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